•Amb. Bianca Ojukwu and Gov. Chukwuma Soludo
Eventually, Bianca Ojukwu chose the wrong option — slamming the sanctity of Igbo culture, upsetting the senses of believers in the people’s ethos and daring the consequences. Instead of apology or remorse, she now appears to be priming for a fight. And one dares ask: Fight with who, and who is advising her? Sad!
On New Year’s Day, an affronting claim, backed by photographs, surfaced on Bianca’s social media page, suggesting that she had picked up a chieftaincy title — ‘Anyanwu N’Awalu Ora’ (The Light of the Community) — in some quarters in Awka. Concerned that such a development, if left unclarified, could taint the sanctity of the traditional values of Ndi Anambra and the Igbo nation at large, the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs of Anambra State, Mr TonyCollins Nwabunwanne, promptly issued a disclaimer titled ‘Amb. Bianca Ojukwu and the Fake Chieftaincy Title from a Fake Traditional Ruler’.
In that disclaimer, the commissioner clearly explained the processes that authenticate such honours and who is qualified to bestow them. Since then, days have passed without a word from Bianca.
About a week after the junior minister’s social media outing, Chinedu Eneh made an unexpected Facebook post.
In a column titled ‘Chinedu Eneh on the Matter’, signed off as AIF, Eneh stated thus:
“Peter Obi wouldn’t have gone to the media against Bianca.
Obiano would never go to the media to attack Bianca.
Ngige would have invited Bianca to Government House and spoken to her privately.
But Nwa Mgbafor allowed Commissioner TonyCollins Nwabunwanne to go to the media to embarrass Bianca for receiving a chieftaincy title.
The same way he ordered Commissioner Nwabunwanne to abuse the late Ifeanyi Ubah when he received a chieftaincy title from Igwe Neni.
It will go round because we warned you guys to vote APGA out on November 8.
— AIF Media.”
So, what is amiss? Is there more than meets the eye in Bianca’s Awka outing?
Ndi Igbo have a maxim: ‘oke amakwana uma ataka akpa dibia ka nwa dibia ghara ima uma ahu ya onu n’oku’ — let the rat not deliberately tear the native doctor’s bag, so that the native doctor’s child will not burn its mouth in fire.
There are cultures and values Ndi Igbo do not toy with. Even at the height of political confrontation, social showiness or sheer chicanery, Ndi Igbo do not juggle hot potatoes when it comes to core traditional issues — such as assuming or exercising a people’s royal authority, or lifting their ofo (the symbol of ancestral authority) to bestow titles.
Anyone conversant with Igbo culture knows that one does not simply go somewhere, don a red cap, pose for photographs and declare oneself a chief. Igbo chieftaincy is not pageantry.
Madam Minister of State, though an erstwhile beauty ‘queen’, knows this — or should know it — by virtue of her background. By nativity, she hails from Ngwo in Enugu State, a society steeped in indigenous culture. By marriage, she is the wife of an icon of Igbo values and rallying point of contemporary Igbo cultural consciousness from Nnewi, Anambra State. Professionally, she is a lawyer and understands what the law stipulates.
As the serving Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; widow of the late leader of Ndi Igbo, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (Eze Igbo Gburugburu); daughter of a former governor of old Anambra State, the late Chief C. C. Onoh (Aninefungwu); and a chieftain of the ruling party in Anambra State, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Lady Bianca should be the least imaginable person to engage in such a sordid venture.
How does the daughter of a man named ‘Aninefungwu’ — a name that affirms the sacredness of land and the sanctity of nature — descend to disparage Igbo culture in this manner? How does the wife of the flagship beacon of Igbo values, Ojukwu the Ikemba, so ignominiously trample on those same values?
Yet, events suggest she may have foreseen the misadventure. Whatever her reasons, only she can explain. However, not everything is a prop for childish play.
What transpired in Awka, Anambra State, shortly before the New Year is therefore a despicable episode which all conscientious Ndi Igbo persons must condemn.
Bianca is beautiful enough to adopt any glowing name that connotes her sparkle — anyanwu (sun), onwa (moon), kpakpandu (star). She can even garland herself with roses, gold and diamonds, and proclaim herself the best thing since jollof rice. But making a mockery of Igbo culture and squaring up for a fight with the tradition is entirely unacceptable.
Because many have plied that path and failed woefully she is advised to heed wisdom. The land — it’s elements and essence — know how to respond at ripe time. That is the implicit warning encoded in deeply connotative Igbo names such as the ‘Aninefungwu’ of her late father, Onoh.
The minister of state knows the traditional rulers of Awka. It is not Chief Austin Ndigwe, irrespective of how grandiose his palace appears. It is Obi Gibson Nwosu (Eze Uzu II). As a lawyer, she knows whose prerogative it is to confer chieftaincy titles. Interestingly, Lady Bianca was present not long ago at Ndigwe’s residence when the Governor of Anambra State publicly advised him to stop parading himself as the traditional ruler of Awka.
This is how Nwabunwanne reported the incident:
“Hon. Minister Ojukwu — with her background and pedigree — knows, or should know, these FACTS very well.
She was in the home of Chief Ndigwe when the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, attended his birthday celebration a few years ago and publicly advised him ‘as a friend’ to desist from impersonating the traditional ruler of the town, stating clearly that the recognised traditional ruler remained HRH Gibson Nwosu. The video went viral. Indeed, in her publication on her verified Facebook account, Mrs Ojukwu carefully avoided referring to Mr Ndigwe as a traditional ruler, instead describing him as ‘Supreme Commander of Awka Ancient Kingdom’ — a phantom title that does not exist in Awka.”
So, what exactly is Lady Bianca cultivating social media boys for, instead of apologising and sparing herself further embarrassment and the wrath of the land?
Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of spirituality or mysticism knows that there is no need to engage in a clash over “fake” chieftaincy or an “impostor” on an ancestral throne.
An Igbo maxim says: ‘a di azo eze azo’ (the land and its gods ordain royalty). It is neither about bravado nor bravura. In the fullness of time, Ani — Mother Earth and the supreme deity in Igbo cosmology — delivers final judgement. That, indeed, is the moral force behind ‘Aninefungwu’.
According to the Anambra State government, the recognised traditional ruler of Awka is His Royal Highness, Obi Gibson Nwosu (Eze Uzu II). The 92-year-old Air Force veteran and scholar, an ally of Bianca’s late husband during the Nigerian Civil War, is alive, alert and officially recognised. Why then should the minister betray her late husband’s legacy — and everything she symbolises — by aligning with the illegitimate?
The Anambra State government has rightly described the episode as an abomination and an affront to the traditional institution.
That is precisely what it is.
*Nnabuife, Managing Director of the Anambra State Civic and Social Reformation Office (ANCISRO), writes from Awka
